Tuesday 22 August 2017

Review: Coming Up For Air by Miranda Kenneally

Coming Up For Air by Miranda Kenneally
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Publication Date: July 4th 2017
My rating: 5 stars 


Swim. Eat. Shower. School. Snack. Swim. Swim. Swim. Dinner. Homework. Bed. Repeat. All of Maggie’s focus and free time is spent swimming. She’s not only striving to earn scholarships—she’s training to qualify for the Olympics. It helps that her best friend, Levi, is also on the team and cheers her on. But Levi’s already earned an Olympic tryout, so Maggie feels even more pressure to succeed. And it’s not until Maggie’s away on a college visit that she realizes how much of the “typical” high school experience she’s missed by being in the pool. Not one to shy away from a challenge, Maggie decides to squeeze the most out of her senior year. First up? Making out with a guy. And Levi could be the perfect candidate. After all, they already spend a lot of time together. But as Maggie slowly starts to uncover new feelings for Levi, how much is she willing to sacrifice in the water to win at love?

The Hundred Oaks series holds so many great memories for me, the first book Catching Jordan came out when I’d first started blogging and making friends in the blogging community. The fact that I’m still a blogger today and have come to the end of The Hundred Oaks series brings about the end of a fantastic reading journey for me. I’ve become attached to every single character in this series, I’ve loved how I’ve been able to follow them all on their journeys and see them develop into even greater individuals. With so many great characters that Kenneally has given us, I can’t really choose a favourite, but once again Kenneally has won me over with characters such as Maggie and Levi. 

I have to admit I didn’t know a lot about Coming up for Air before I started and I think this was the best decision I could have made as I ended up enjoying it so much. I enjoy how Kenneally gives us her sport romances, being the sports junkie that I am, I love following characters through their passion for sports and watching them grow and develop into successful stars. So I was thoroughly excited when I found out this book would feature on a MC who was a swimmer. I’ve always been a fan of swimming and watching all the heats or competitions when they come on. So I loved that Kenneally gave us an MC in Maggie who was continually trying to be the best, she had a rival in Roxy who was the absolute worst, she would always get into Maggie’s head, when she was trying to get her mind set for any big race. But most of all Maggie was your typical girl who was trying to balance everything in life. Swimming was her number one priority, but she also wanted to enjoy her social life before she went away to college, she had great friends in Levi, Hunter and Georgia, but she just wanted that somebody special, she had no real experience and so thought that now would be the perfect time to. I don’t know what I really was expecting, but I loved the way that things played out, I guess because I wasn’t expecting them to, but Kenneally totally made their relationship believable and not just two people pretending to be with each and help the other to get experience. I also was totally rooting for their relationship to go to the next level. I knew that there could be several barriers in the way, with both Levi and Maggie having a focus on so many important upcoming competitions, but I just wanted and needed them to make it work. I especially enjoyed the time they spent together, the development of their relationship was absolutely swoon worthy! (Also who could resist a guy that reads all the YA books?) But like I mentioned earlier, their relationship wasn’t smooth sailing, and despite the bumps that came along the way, I felt that those were necessary for our characters to develop and grow and to realise what they wanted, despite the hurt it caused along the way (I was a sobbing mess at one point!). 

Coming up for Air was another brilliant read from Kenneally, I’m actually quite sad about having to say goodbye to such great characters, but I’m sure that these are books I will come back to time and time again in the future!



13 comments:

Grace @ RebelMommyBookBlog said...

I have this one and need to get to it. I have only seen great things. I have only read one other book from this series (I think I own them all though) and really liked it. Glad you enjoyed this one. Great review!

Test said...

So glad to hear you enjoyed this one! Like you I read Catching Jordan around the time I started it blogging - it was one of my first eARCs - so it is very surreal & awesome to see this series finally come to an end. I actually haven't read this one yet, but hopefully soon - the swimming aspect really appeals to me. Great review! :)

Mystica said...

Thanks for the review.

Michelle Fluttering Butterflies said...

Love Miranda Kenneally and this series and book. Glad you did too :)

Kindlemom said...

I love this author, so glad this series ended on such a high note.

Heidi@Rainy Day Ramblings said...

I liked this one, not my fav in the series, but it was still a good one. I am sorry this series has ended. Hopefully she will do something wonderful next.

Karen said...

This is such a great series. I wasn't sure I would like this one as it's not my favorite trope but Kenneally handled it well of course.

Glad you liked it too.

For What It's Worth

Blodeuedd said...

I have heard good things about her

Greg said...

All of her books look so bright and airy! She gets good covers. It almost sounds here like these books have a common setting but different characters? And I love that swimming and competing are a big part of this one. Looks like such a fun and interesting read. :)

Nick said...

I'm so going to miss this series, but I'm also really excited to see where Miranda Kenneally goes next. I'm glad you loved this last installment so much, Jasprit. It wasn't my favorite in the series because the romance made me anxious at times, but I absolutely loved how sex positive the book was. And that epilogue was just pure joy! Beautiful review, Jasprit! :)

Carina Olsen said...

Awesome review Jasprit :D So glad you enjoyed this pretty looking book so much. Not really a story for me, but you have made me a bit curious even so. <3 Aaack, heartbreaking part too? Not for me, haha. But glad you felt it was good, even so :D

Sara @ Forever 17 Books said...

Great review! It's hard to say goodbye to a series you love so much. I still haven't read a single book in this series but I so want to, especially this one right here. :)

Samantha@WLABB said...

I thought this was such an awesome farewell for the Hundred Oaks series. Kenneally really brought us full circle, and that epilogue was everything.

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